Wednesday

On the Move

Hello Everyone, I was hoping for some advice on my move in Sept. A fellow nanny and I are planning on moving from Boston MA to Portland Oregon. We would like some information about the area, nanny opportunities and cost of living/nanny pay rate. Any advice would be great. We were also considering Chicago and Newport Beach CA. Many thanks!

4 comments:

Nanny S
said...

I was raised in Portland but haven't worked in the area since I was 18. The cost of living is lower than most major cities and the demand for nannies is lower as well. For nanny opportunities, the suburbs of West Linn, Lake Oswego, or Dunthorpe are all the more upscale areas. There are also areas of both West Linn and Lake Oswego that would be affordable for someone with a lower income. In the city of Portland, the West Hills and Northwest Portland are also good locations. Check craigslist to get a feel of the rates and what is out there. It's a very liberal area. Watch Portlandia to get an idea of the culture! Other than that, it rains a lot, you don't pump your own gas, and there is no sales tax but a very high income tax. The people are generally very easy going and friendly. Good luck!

Never been to portland but live close to Boston and its a very nice place with alot of different places and Boston is about an hour/hour and a half to RI and a few hours to NY (driving).. I live in Providence, RI so i'm about an hour drive to Boston and go there probably a few times a year or when i go to Logan Airport. I love the City down there, IT's clean, alot better then Providence in my opinion and the people are more down to earth. Boston would be alot closer to the Ocean then Portland. You get all hour seasons, never any horrible weather, and you can take road trips to NH, Mass, RI, NY, Maine, in no time at all with a car.Boston is more of a City so you wont see farms etc lol. But i love the City personally because there is alot more to do in my opinion. You can try googling Boston Mass and see what pops up or google things like ''Places in Boston'' ''Things to do in Boston Mass''

Portlander here (not born, though!). Cost of living is average, I don't have much trouble finding jobs (currently lots of short-term ones (1-3 months, etc)). Long term positions are much harder to find, but they can be had!

If you don't like the sun much you'll love it here. :P It rains A LOT (Like, 85% of the time a lot. Please be ready, haha!), nobody knows how to drive when it snows OR RAINS (how is that possible, right?), but it's home.

As for nanny pay rate, anywhere from $11-15 an hour is average, depending on how many kids you're watching obviously. I make more of the $11-13 range, because I choose not to accept more than 2 kids (usually, I'd make exceptions but 2 is best imo)..

I'm in the Chicago area. If you decide on Chicago, go for a big rich suburb. Find a family that lives there, then find an apartment (or wherever) in a smaller town nearby.I live in a big town. The rent & whatnot is really high. But I also live on the border. If you cross it into a neighboring town, the rent drops. And it only takes about 5 minutes to drive from my house to the next town.

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